Some evenings, Mamoru's apartment is packed solid, either with residents or visitors. And then some evenings, Mamoru is out, and that thins the crowd down markedly -- one or two of the four of them out with him, Nephrite likely asleep somewhere to take advantage of the time between school hours and whenever the astronomical event he'll spend twenty minutes explaining the importance of at you is due to happen.
Lack of coordinated timing does, however, make the crowd harder to cook for. Stew is the eternal solution, which just means the place is doomed to smell of chicken and spices all evening, and have an ever-changing small set of dishes drying in the rack. There are worse things.
Presently the one who's keeping tabs on the place is Kunzite; he's up and about, doing some of the various bits of minor maintenance to keep the place livable, which puts him in a good place to let visitors in. Well. Sort of a good place. One might argue that, with his hair shorn down to not a whole lot more than white fuzz, nothing is a good place; but at least there's no other visible sign of why the change.
There's an advantage to being an official minion, or mascot perhaps, or interior decorator, if one is feeling fancy about it. In any case, there's less challenge to Naru simply turning up at the apartment. She often turns up after school, but today, it's later in the evening, after supper certainly, that she slips quietly into the apartment building.
A pause, almost bracing herself for the chaos that so often envelopes the place, and she taps a polite knock upon the door, just in case someone is actually home, and awake enough to let her in.
Naru was probably not expecting the immediate response to come from behind her. All the same, she's barely finished knocking before Makoto's voice calls from a short ways down the hallway: Naru-chan, hey."
In fairly short order she's come the rest of the way down the hall to join Naru outside the door, clearly having had the same destination in mind. There's not much other reason for her to be in this particular hallway, after all.
She's carrying her school bag with her, and she absently adjusts her grip on it as she stands and offers Naru a friendly smile. "How's it going?"
Daisuke Hansuke managed to not see anyone else come up, else he'd probably had caught up with Makoto or Naru. Regardless, he's been in the elevator going up since because that is one many floor elevator. He has nothing in his hands it seems, at least. School bags got left in his dorm room.
Ding!
The elevator opens and he brushes off his right sleeve a bit as he walks down the hall, turns the corner and---- Oh.
There's Makoto! and Naru at the door. "Oh- uh, whoops! Hey Makoto, Naru." he says.
"Is this a bad time? Maybe I should had called before hand..." he muses a bit. He figured, with five people in a place... SOMEONES gotta be home. Right?
Someone is indeed home! Otherwise the elevator would not have been keyed up to this floor. Well, not unless there was mental influence involved, and one Never Knows about that.
The door to Mamoru's apartment is unlocked and opened; Kunzite lifts eyebrows for a moment. (Never mind that one of them is somewhat less -- there -- than the other.) "You're flocking tonight," he remarks, and steps back out of the way to let them in. "Good evening. I take it you've all met."
"Oh!" Naru smiles in surprised delight as she's joined by first Makoto and then Daisuke and she giggles softly. "Apparently this is the place to be tonight. I am well." She replies to Makoto's question. "How about yourself?" Her attention turns to include both of them in the question. "Both of you?" She hooks her backpack a bit more upon her shoulder and then turns as the door opens.
"Kunzite!" Naru exclaims as she blinks up at him. "What happened to your hair?"
A little bubble of laughter escapes Mako at Daisuke's worry - "If you called ahead, Hansuke-san," she tells him, "you'd probably be the only one."
Then Kunzite's opening the door, and his comment about 'flocking' gets a cheery tip of Makoto's head. "It's fine, see?"
She, at least, is not overly surprised by Kunzite's shorn look, although it's still a bit of a jolt to see him like this. "He had an accident with the gas stove," she quips in answer to Naru's question. "The 'evil plant monster' kind of accident. That is not what I was teaching you to use a stove for, by the way." Mako tries really hard to pin Kunzite with a stern look, but it's mostly ruined by the way the corners of her mouth won't stop twitching upwards.
Daisuke Hansuke smiles at Naru and Makoto. "I guess it is!" he says placing his hands into his pockets. "I'm well. Mostly. I'm free for a few weeks. Taking a vacation from the chairty stuff. Can't do it all the time, else you'll go crazy~" he insists.
He flashes a smile and then turns to Regard Kunzite. "Yes, flocking like a gaggle of silly geese, Ku----"
He sort of closes his mouth as he finally looks to face Kunzite as he looks away from Naru and Makoto and leans forward to inspect Kunzite's hair. "I'm going to assume this isn't your idea of a new fashion statement- and that something happened." he clears his throat.
"Hello, Kunzite! How are you- besides the hair?" he asks innocently. "I'd offer to try to heal that but something tells me Mamoru would had tried already anyways and well..." he motions. "You're still like that."
(Closer inspection also shows Daisuke the faint marks of freshly-healed wounds on Kunzite's neck. Anything else is either hidden under clothing, or was too thoroughly taken care of to be seen.)
"You're entirely correct, of course. It was unevenly cooked. I'll do better next time." He doesn't smile, but his eyes glint just so as he inclines his head to Makoto, then closes the door behind the three of them. Not that there's anyone else on the floor to lock out. "Fine, otherwise. Mamoru healed the worst of the burns before he passed out, and the rest as soon as he woke up." Also the poison. Also the -- yeah, not going to detail that. "The rest of you seem to be looking well." Any other topic in a storm.
"Oh! I.. well I'm glad you're alright?" Naru offers and she nods at the further explination provided by Makato, chewing on her bottom lip a touch, squinting at Kunzite and then frowning at the mention of Mamoru passing out after healing, and gives a longsuffering sigh.
"Does that mean that the evil plant monster is dealt with?" Naru asks, with a faint bit of optimism at that notion. "Oh. I'm fine." Naru assures with an easy smile. "I'm boring. Unlike the rest of you. That's why I turn up here, to listen to the exciting."
A little yelp of pleased laughter escapes Makoto at 'unevenly cooked'. "As long as you don't end up in the burner next time," she mock-chides, before turning to make a wry face at Naru.
"That evil plant monster was," she says with a tone of authority. "The bigger problem's still out there. But we're working on it."
Daisuke Hansuke sort of sighs and crosses his arms. "Sorry Kunzite. I'd fix it if I could." he promises. He walks on in as he looks around and huhs. "Oh, wow. This is a lot nicer than the last place." he says softly. He turns around to face Makoto and Naru. "Boring. I think I remember what that's like." he insists.
RHe smirks sideways just a little at his statement as he looks over to Makoto. "Oh, are you teaching Kunzite to cook, Makoto?" he asks as he looks back to Kunzite.
"That must be fun, right?" he asks.
He crosses his arms and sighs. "Right. Plant Monster. I've been keeping an eye open at my dad's practice. Nothing. Yet." he says. "Nothing I can recognize as an 'energy drain' yet anyways." he says. "No epidemic of narcolepsy or anythingg." he says. "or things like that." he waves his hand off a bit.
"I swear I have some words for this guy if I ever met him. Things about boundaries." he insists.
Kunzite spreads his hands to Makoto, in a fashion that he may have picked up from Mamoru, or maybe it's the other way around. "When we figure out how to guarantee no-one's going to teleport in behind me, then I'll make you that promise," he tells her. "Until then, we'll call it an occupational hazard."
He retreats toward the couch, though possibly more to lean against the back of it than to actually sit down. "Thank you for watching," he says to Daisuke. "And thank you, also, Naru. It was follow-up on one of your warnings that let us catch that one in time."
There is no comment made about whether Makoto is teaching him to cook. None.. That is all hers to field. He picks up the thread of this place being nicer. "This is where Mamoru's lived for a long time," he says to Daisuke. "He had to stay away for a while; but that was my fault, and it's repaired now. We're rearranging things to make room for the four of us, and make sure we don't throttle each other. Too much." There's a restrained shrug, and another of those amused glitters that don't touch the rest of his face. "If there were a court these days --" He gestures toward the game controllers with one hand. "This would be it. Thankfully, we're past that."
"I could teach you about boring." Naru offers with a grin for Daisuke. "I don't entirely recommend it, however. Most people find that it's a bit too .. mmm.. what's the word.. oh right.. boring for their tastes." She follows Kunzite towards the sitting down part of the apartment, finding a chair to curl up in.
It's inevitable that her notebook comes out before Naru's entirely settled, and pencils besides, before she settles properly.
Naru nods at Makoto at the mention of 'still working on it' about plant monsters. "So perhaps I'll just cross 'gardening' off the list for the time being." She muses a little and then flips open her notebook, settling to listen more than chat, as tends to be her norm.
"Probably a good idea, for now," Makoto agrees to Naru's musing about gardening, with a sympathetic smile. "Makes me mad, but it's better to be safe--"
'Occupational hazard' gets a very wry face, but Mako doesn't challenge Kunzite on that. She grins over at Daisuke instead. "He's a good learner!" she says. "And probably the only person here I'd trust in the kitchen, so..."
Bouncing from one line of conversation to another, she swings her attention back toward Kunzite, green eyes bright and sparkling. "No," Makoto agrees, "now you're more like a frat house." As though the person most responsible for that were not the one she's here to see most often. Speaking of which... "Is Nephrite in his cave?"
Daisuke Hansuke tries to imagine Jadeite cooking. He can see it. He tries to imagine Zoisite cooking. He giggles a bit to himself. He tries to imagine Nephrite cooking. He bet he's using the Stars to time the perfect turkey. Mamoru... comes off as more a burger and fries guy to him.
Yeah, he shakes his head a bit. "No, please. Savor that 'boring'. I'm well past that." he insists.
He looks toward's Kunzite. He blinks. The same place. he looks back. No.. this place is... much bigger. Isn't it? He just shakes his head. No need to disbelive or to argue against it.
He looks towards the games console with a 'heh' as he crosses his arms. "Oh. Right."
"I didn't find that strange girl when I left to go look. Like. Anywhere. Remember, the one from the Cafe."
"She hasn't, uh. Tried to ambush Mamoru from any creepy alleys, right?"
Letting the part-time pyromaniac cook: absolutely never a good idea. As for Nephrite ... the man bought a restaurant specifically to avoid ever having to deal with that.
"He is," Kunzite says to Makoto, "unless he's managed to evolve back up to something nearly subhuman and crawl out of it in his sleep. Or unless he's remembered he has opposable thumbs, in which case he's probably out on the roof by now. We can always try coffee, if you'd like."
-- did Makoto or Naru hear about the strange girl? Kunzite can't remember. He can, however, shake his head to Daisuke. "No creepy alleys. Mind, we've been a little busy, so it may just have been lack of opportunity on her part." Or the universe playing conservation of stalkers, given that there were two over the weekend. If Nephrite's old house counted as a stalker. Which it probably did.
Naru is regarded silently for a moment or two, studying either her or her notebook. "Speaking of the list," he says to her, "I think you were right." And leaves it at that for now; they'll talk about it later.
Naru Osaka smiles at Kunzite's mention of the list and she simply replies. "Tuesday." She seems content to leave that at that, and settles prperly quiet, listening more than commenting, letting her attention focus upon the notebook in her lap, glancing around the room rather than at the people chatting, and drawing.
The prospect of luring Nephrite out with coffee is an intriguing one, but before Makoto can act on it she is rather thoroughly distracted by mention of strange girls ambushing Mamoru from dark alleys. "--what girl?" she asks immediately, looking between Daisuke and Kunzite as the two who seem to know about this already. "Did Mamoru-niisan pick up another stalker while I wasn't looking?"
The terse exchange between Kunzite and Naru gets a more curious glance from one to the other, but since that's all that seems is going to be said on the subject, she's not quite sure if she should ask.
Daisuke Hansuke looks to Makoto. "Oh. that's right." he says. "We meet a weird girl. Claming to be a member of uh..."
"...Seishou's... Space Botanty... Club..." he says deadpanedly. "Who seemed to take intrest in Mamoru. We're pretty sure she wasn't creepy space guy- someone else. But. Well."
"You can see the weirdness involved." he says. "She said her name was... Natsumi Ginga? Yeah that's it." he says. "She goes to Seishou at least, so you might be in a better postion to look her up than I am." he says with a shrug. "I've been meaning to follow up I... um." he says. "Wasn't exactly personable with her because I was so weirded out. Meant to apologize to her at least. Ya know?" he says.
"Weather permitting," Kunzite confirms to Naru, before settling his attention back on the other two.
"By 'seemed to take interest,'" he provides, "he means that she seemed to think that if she hung on Mamoru's arm long enough, and asked enough times whether he /really/ had a girlfriend, the answer would somehow change. She's the most reasonable yet, though, she eventually let go without needing to be threatened." Loomed at, yes. Threatened, no. "Interesting to talk to, at least."
"Space... botany?" Needless to say, Makoto's face is a study of confusion as she contemplates this. "Should we be checking her out for alien plants?"
The more she thinks, the more her brow furrows in sudden perplexity. "Ginga... I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before, but I can't remember where. Maybe I've heard of her at school." It's not exactly a common family name.
Daisuke Hansuke smiles. "Yeah she was kind of insistent. Oh. right. Mamoru gave /her/ a fake name. Darien Shields. Use that, if you need to talk about him or-- if she mentions 'Darien'.. that's who she actually means." he says.
He crosses his arms. "Yeah I'm as confused as you are. She didn't seem... energy drained but maybe someone should still check up to make sure she isn't getting in any trouble if she discovers 'something' by accident." he says as he rolls his eyes and sighs.
He nods. "Yeah, not surprising if she goes to your school, afterall." he says.
"Also yeah. Really clingly. Really, really clingy. Also, apparently, from where she's from, 'Bozo' is a compliment, so yeah." he says rolling his eyes again.
Kunzite's nonexpression becomes, somehow, more markedly not an expression. "At least she claimed to expect more meteorite remnants than actual living flowers," he says. "That's relatively promising." Or at least relatively not awful. "And being improbably hopeful isn't in itself a criminal offense." Unless it leads one to fail to let go of the target of said hopes, but they've covered that part.
Makoto just kind of shakes her head and sighs. "Darien Shields," she repeats. "Right. Okay. I am never going to remember that - anyway, I'll keep an eye out for her at school, just in case. Mamoru-niisan's not allowed to have any more stalkers, it's too hard on everyone's stress levels."
With this pronouncement, Makoto takes in a breath and draws herself up to her full height. "I think I'm going to go see if I can lure Nephrite out of hiding," she says. "Unless there's any other emergencies I should know about?"
This is the point at which the balcony door opens to let in god knows who because this place has always been grand central oh wait it's just the prince. He's got the look of someone who's gamely combatting an incredible headache with judicious application of painkillers and decongestants and copious amounts of water, fighting something resembling arthritis and skin sensitivity with antihistamines and really light summer clothes, grimly battling exhaustion by force of will alone, and fighting irritation with an mp3 player, one earbud in.
He brightens when he sees people more than those that live here, though, which is a good sign. He brightens even more when he notices one of them is Makoto. "Hey! Neph's looking for you, but he just hit the roof. I think he forgets he can use his phone or his communicator instead of asking the stars sometimes."
Daisuke Hansuke smiles and gives a wave. "Have fun.~" he says, that ever so soft teasing tone. He looks back to Kunzite and taps his far shoulder as he crosses his arms. "Still can't hurt to keep a tab on her. Someone with that infatuation might become a tool for the other one somehow." he says.
He blinks, as the balcony door opens and-- it's Mamoru! Who looks like garbage if garbage could throw out garbage.
He blinks. "You look like hell." he frowns. "I understand you guys had a run in with Stalker Number One! I know Kunzite is okay, if, having the worst hair day of this century." he says. "How about you?" he asks.
"Also, this place looks nice!" he adds, finally.
The glance Kunzite gives Makoto might possibly be commiseration. Given that Daisuke had to be the one to mention the Shields name. "I'll be sure to let them know about the ban," he says to her. ... and then he's turning toward the balcony door a fraction of a second before it actually opens; pausing when it does, and regards the somewhat debilitated prince for a long moment as if trying to gauge whether he's going to need physical support to make it through the arduous journey from door to couch. "Have you eaten yet?" is all he actually winds up asking. Polite lies due to really not wanting to, entirely acceptable.
"Mamoru-niisan!" Makoto greets Mamoru's arrival with a bright smile that shades quickly into concern; she very visibly only just manages not to follow Daisuke's example and comment on how terrible he looks.
Instead she nods, and rolls her eyes affectionately. "All right," she says, "thanks. I'll go up and remind him that technology is a thing. You--" she glances toward Kunzite, then to Daisuke, and as she looks back to Mamoru she amends whatever she was going to say into a lightly-spoken, "take it easy, okay?"
The prince gives Daisuke a wry look. "Thanks," he says. "I'm not okay, but it's basically just the worst hayfever in the history of ever. You know how some people it's ragweed, some people it's tree pollen, et cetera ad nauseam? With me it's apparently obnoxious mind controlling mobile space flowers that spread faster than kudzu. The more of them there are, the more allergic I get."
He blows Makoto a kiss, then schlumphs across from balcony to couch without aid -- even if his movements are a little stiff -- and drops himself onto the couch next to where Kunzite is leaning. There's a brief wince as his joints protest, and then he waves a hand. "It's all right. I'm going to be sleeping in the palaces, for the record, since that crap can't get in there and I emerge, like a butterfly from a cocoon, ready to face another day of school. It's just really wearing on me to stay out the whole day. I'mma go in a little while, and it definitely counts as taking it easy."
A beat, and then the known and loved and exasperating expression so quintessentially Mamoru: stubbornness. "But I'm not going into hiding again. Not again. It's the worst. There's literally no internet down there."
He shifts onto his side, half-curled on the couch, and tilts his head back to look up at Kunzite. "I forgot to. But I smell apricot chicken and saffron rice. And I really want some now."
Daisuke Hansuke frowns and crosses his arms. "You know." he says. "I can help with those problems, just lemme know and I can do the snake staff thing." he assures. "Just can't clear out any existing allergens." then a pause. Then a concerned expression. "There's uh. Nothing in the air here, is there?" he asks a moment.
"Ugh, alien plant pollen, ugh." he says. "We get so many hay fever cases in the office this time of year I can only imagine how something worse must effect someone." he says.
He looks back at Kunzite and crosses his arms. "Oh, is that what's cooking? Sorry, I'm not used to well. 'Homecooked' smells. That's practically a word you never hear in a dorm." he smirks. "Hotplates are frowned upon and all. I have a microwave and a tiny fridge." he assures.
"Luckily, you can still eat mostly healthy with that." he says. "Just gotta stay away from the cheap things." he says.
Sometimes problems creep in in the simplification. Kunzite doesn't address any of them, largely because he doesn't know for certain whether they are problems. Instead, he drops a hand onto Mamoru's shoulder when the prince falls onto the couch. "That's what happens when you ask a butterfly to haul textbooks," he tells him. "I'm reminded; Kyouko stopped by." No new issues, or he'd mention instead of looking for a moment visibly amused at Mamoru's Internetless lament.
Hand's taken back, when Mamoru shifts to his side, but the appeal for food results in Kunzite leaning down over the back of the couch and kissing Mamoru's forehead briefly. He straightens up after and turns for the kitchen. "We try to discourage living entirely on processed noodles with salt broth. Largely because none of us want Makoto to make us into a personal demonstration of her opinion on that. Am I feeding one of you or both?"
"I wouldn't be opposed to the snake staff thing if you can alleviate some of the symptoms. Near as I can tell it's an autoimmune reaction to the alien botany invading the earth, combined with a near-constant splitting headache from the loud protestations of said earth at said invation. It's nothing I can heal myself, not when I'm low on energy from constantly trying to keep my shields up," Mamoru says, half into the couch cushions.
But then when he's looking up to somewhat pathetically go 'yes oh my god that smells amazing please can you get me some i can't make myself get up again ugh', and Kunzite kisses his forehead, there's the briefest moment of serene calm; he can ignore the aching in his joints and the headache at the base of his skull; he can just fix bright blue eyes on his guardian's and give him the littlest smile in return, nearly all of it in the corners of his eyes.
"I'm glad she did. I think I'll text her and let her know I'm at Zoi's place most nights now, I miss her and I'm not much fun like this."
Daisuke Hansuke crosses arms. He fully expected to be told no, because. well. pride. Lots of people don't go to a doctor because of that! But Mamoru says 'Okay' and this makes him look relived rather than tense. "Right. Just sit right there." he says with a smile.
He looks at Kunzite and gives a soft matter of fact nod. "If I'm not imposing, I would /love/ some. It does smell good." he insists.
He holds his hand out. That ring becomes a staff--- a clothes become that elaborate robbed garb- and then he stands in front of Mamoru. "Yeah okay. Just. Hold still." he says holding the staff in one hand-- then two as he closes his eyes. No muttering. Just purple energy flowing into the staff, which then he then lightly places against Mamoru's head- snake head touching somewhere against his hair, then let's his magic do the rest of the work. He should begin to feel a little less achey. Maybe a little more clearheaded. As he goes on. He reopens his eyes for a bit as he let's it continue as he asks.
"Nrg, if there's anything I can do to help stop this thing, don't be afraid to bug me guys. Not exactly fighty mcfight here, but I'll do what I can." he urges. "Besides. Sounds like you guys need some help after fighting these things. Sheesh."
The benefit of being Mamoru these days: there is always somebody he can tell to go get things from the kitchen for him. The down side of being Mamoru these days: sometimes it works, sometimes it gets mockery and/or small flying objects. When he's looking that pathetic, granted, it generally works. "You should," Kunzite calls back rom the resultant kitchen quest. "She'd probably appreciate evidence you still have thumbs."
Daisuke's response, on the other hand, waits a little. Until stew is ladled over rice; until dishes and food and tea have migrated to the pair's vicinity. (Kunzite's idea of cooking is neither as elaborate nor as amazing as Makoto's, but at least there are reasonably balanced calories.) And until the magic is done, or at least done enough for Daisuke's eyes to open.
"You're not imposing. We plan for a dozen on a slow day." Or for five teenaged boys plus the possibility of both Usagi and Kyouko showing up simultaneously. 'A dozen' is close enough. Maybe a little low.
"What, did she think my thumbs fell off? Sheez," calls back the prince with an audible eyeroll.
Though-- when Daisuke tels him to hold still, he does. Compared to certain of his brothers, it's usually easy for him. When he's feeling this crummy, it's easier still.
The effects are visible: a little of his color comes back, the crease on his forehead from the everpresent headache fades some, he's immediately more relaxed and actually flexes his hands in amazement because they don't hurt; he stares at them in mixed rue and wonder. "If only you could bottle that, I could take it in class," he says with a quiet laugh. "Thanks, man."
More telling still, and more quietly yet, though Kunzite'll be able to hear it on his way out, he adds, "I'm in absolutely no shape to fight unless as a last resort, right now. I'm more of a liability than anything else, even showing up and staying out of the way-- since I'm the main bipedal target. And I can't even heal everything I usually can; I just don't have the energy to spare. So seriously. If you can make it, you're going to be primary evac and patch-up for a while. I can always use help-- but right now, I can't even do my part."
He very, very gratefully takes the bowl of stew from Kunzite, and though he doesn't uncurl from his sideways couchness, he definitely looks more comfortable than he did when Kunzite left the room.
Daisuke Hansuke finishes as much as he can. Anything else at this point is wasting energy. If it hasn't done it by now, it isn't gonna happen, he figures. He removes the staff. And nods. He lets his staff fade off. "You can count on me for that. I'm good for that. Just you know, I'm entirely less dashing and handsome about it." he insists coyly.
He lifts the staff-- off go the fancy clothes. On come the regular ones. The staff goes back to it's ring form. He takes a deep breath and shakes his head with a miserable 'gruff'. "Right." he says. "Well now you look better, so that's a plus. Not sure how long that'll last. I figure long enough for you to get around more easier for a bit." he insists.
He accepts the bowl, politely from Kunzite with a smile. "Thank you Kunzite. It smells great." he says as he bows politely, then sits down and begins to eat. It's good! "Yeah this is much better than rehydrated noodles and a load of salt." he insists.
"If it lasts long enough for him to finish eating ..." Kunzite doesn't actually tack a 'then' clause on to that sentence. He folds himself down to sit on the floor beside the couch, instead. "Overland route tonight," he tells Mamoru, with a flatness to his tone that betrays obstinacy. "No shortcuts." Medication or not.
It's only a muttered 'itadakimasu' before Mamoru's shovelling food in his mouth, and his mouth is full when Kunzite's dire specification is made. His face immediately goes amazingly sourly rueful. "You know," he says with his hand in front of his full mouth, "I thought I'd always hate teleporting? But lately even if it's still disorienting and wretched, the sensory deprivation's at least a reprieve from the screaming. So, fine, but you might end up having to carry me partway."
He swallows and just looks infinitely tired for a second. "You know... maybe we can get Prism Keeper Orange to wear a tiny MiB suit and sunglasses and have her attack the thing outside the temp flat. Because she'd be Agent Orange."
Daisuke Hansuke eats long enough. "Overland route?..." he asks. "Do I even want to know?" he asks as he sighs. He looks to Kunzite. "It should last him long enough to get to wherever he's going. And if it doesn't, I can just redo it again before I go. I've no problem with that. I don't feel particularly drained from the earlier attempt. Not like I was healing griveous wounds like I normally am when I do the thing." he says with a short smile.
Then he looks over to Mamoru between a bite back to Kunzite. "So. I think. I'm going to try dating again." he says tapping the side of his bowl a moment. "Got to talking with someone recently. Eh, seems like a good idea. Considering my last attempts were well. Not really full hearted n' all." he says.
"Trying to fill that sensation before I found the staff n' all." he says. "Think I had to date like six people before I gave up." he insists.
Then a pause. Then a deadpan blink. He places his spoon down and then rubs a hand up his face in melodrama. "That joke was so bad. It made me ill. Excuse me while I heal thyself." he insists.
Then he goes right back to eating.
Kunzite glances up and aside at Daisuke. "Like he said, he's also allergic to teleporting," he answers, matter-of-fact. "Stack that on top of the rest of this mess --" Disorienting and wretched, Mamoru said. "-- and he hasn't been eating that much. So." So Kunzite is making an assertion about which way they're going to try to get the pain-versus-nausea equation to work out to something that lets Mamoru hang on to the food he's eating, this time. However they're getting to wherever Zoi's place is.
There are people, among Mamoru's guardians, who would be able to field dating-related announcements in a graceful or even helpful manner. Applause, or amusement, or well-chosen questions, or at least an understanding of why one would try to fill an emptiness by leaning on attempts at contact and connection. There are, in fact, probably three of them. Unfortunately, the one Daisuke is talking to is the other one. This time the glance up and aside is accompanied by one of those slightly-more-blank-than-merely-absent expressions. Maybe he'll be lucky and Mamoru will catch that --
-- with -- something other than that joke. Kunzite twists further to regard Mamoru narrowly for a moment. "The next time you feel the need to share your pain, warn us first." Not that that would be defeating the point, or anything.
"You're getting away with telling me what to do once tonight," Mamoru says very slightly peevishly, nudging Kunzite's shoulder with his knee lightly. "Don't take away my horrible jokes. I need them. They're medicine. Besides, tiny girl in secret agent outfit, best cosplay. She doesn't have to tell anyone her temporary codename. We don't even have to tell her. If I thought purity fish could actually kill a giant space vine I'd actually push for this. As it is, Cookie might be our best bet. He's a Jack. It's a beanstalk."
Maybe the clarity is actually delirium in disguise. Maybe he's just that hungry. Or underslept.
Finally he glances at Daisuke. "I'm not gonna be a lot of help in the dating advice department. I mean like... I really kind of had it easy apart from destiny being very messy. But I can give you a cross-referenced reading list if you want, I gave one to Suzuki when she was flailing. She found it very helpful."
"I'm not taking away your horrible jokes. You're not taking away my complaining about them." Kunzite suffers being kneed in the shoulder without complaint, in contrast, though the phrase 'purity fish' makes him blink a couple of times. Accurate, granted. But what. Even soccer balls versus giant plant is somehow less weird.
The pause after that is somehow audible.
"You learned to date from a reading list."
Daisuke Hansuke looks at Mamoru hopefully when he mentions the reading list. "Well yeah. I mean if I had awesome past life girlfriend I wouldn't be a mess." he insists with a pursed bemused lips a moment. "But yes that reading list will help." he smiles. "I mean..."
"I think I know what I'm doing? Most of the time?" he asks. "But sometimes I don't." he insists. "At least I've never been slapped yet." he insists.
He looks at Kunzite. "Purity....fish....." he says. "Well. I suppose there's less weird things I've heard about. Like you know. Space Botany Club." he says with a bemused expression. He gets up and takes his now empty bowl over to the sink after a polite 'excuse me' and begins to clean his own bowl because lord if he's gonna be the worst guest ever at Mamoru's place.
At least his parents taught him better than that. "Right so..." he says.
"There's something that's been gnawing at me forever. And I'm talking to you first, because I know what Usagi's gonna do to me and I'm probably going to loose that 'never been slapped' record." he says coyly.
"Remember when I bumped into you and Usagi that one time?" he says. "'accidently'" he says.
"Actually I..." he sort of grates his teeth. Yeah he's ashamed. "I was kind of looking for answers-- no one was giving me any because I guess I was kind of the unknown guy at the time no one was sure about-- and everyone seemed kinda poised on going... 'Don't touch Mamoru'." he says. "Usagi seemed dead set on that so I kinda. Just closed my eyes and--- yeah." he says.
"Sorry about that. And all." he mutters, he says as he puts the plate away. "That fifty Milkshake offer is still good, though." he insists.
"I compiled the reading list for Suzu-chan after having already done a lot of reading on psychology, sociology, women's literature, interpersonal relationships, and the elements of what makes a best-selling romance novel," Mamoru corrects Kunzite pedantically. "And doing research any time behavior perplexed me. I've been a people-watcher most of my life. I like making educated guesses on which way people are going to jump given limited observation time. I learned what's supposedly romantic from watching movies and reading shoujo manga, which is handy, since Usako did too. A lot of living up to expectations comes from finding out what those expectations are."
A beat, and Mamoru gets a little red-faced and pushes stew around in his bowl. "Granted, I forget every last bit of it when actually faced with trying to put it in action, but she loves me anyway."
Then Daisuke makes his confession, more or less from the kitchen, which at least spares him Mamoru's expression.
He's angry.
It's a dull anger, frustrated and resigned, and he's silent for a minute as he runs through the usual litany of reasons he shouldn't be angry: it was a while ago, Daisuke is confessing to it in an attempt to clear the air, there was no lasting damage, Daisuke himself was backed into a corner...
By the time the purple-haired boy comes back out of the kitchen, he's got it under control, and just looks calm.
"Well, you have to call them ice cream smoothies. I got Motoki to change the menu item at Crown. Usagi can't cope with milkshakes anymore, after Beryl..." He shrugs a little uncomfortably. "But you can buy them for her, she'd be a lot happier with them than I would. Your apology's accepted-- but please, still don't touch me without warning. Especially not when I'm like this. Psychic walls take a lot of effort when I'm sick, and I have to have them up all the time when I'm not in hiding, and any unexpected contact's going to shatter them. My control over my psychometry's a lot better than it was then, but it's still not effortless."
... Daisuke thinks that if he had a past-life girlfriend, he wouldn't be a mess. "I wouldn't be so sure," Kunzite mutters, but it's both mostly under his breath and not actually aimed at Mamoru, so he can probably get away with it. Besides, Daisuke's effectively doing better than he is on the never-been-slapped list.
Then Mamoru's present tendency to talk lands on his research subject, and Kunzite's spared any chance of needing to clarify. Mamoru undoubtedly gets himself out of five or ten comments sheerly on the basis of not having preemptively recommended the interpersonal-relationships section of the reading list to Kunzite. Instead, there's a very small smile at the part about forgetting it anyhow ...
And then Daisuke's talking, and that smile vanishes, and for a few moments Kunzite is sitting still, head cocked just slightly, Mamoru in his peripheral vision.
(Reason twenty-eight why Mamoru might not want to be angry just now: potential consequences are all too easy.)
Kunzite eases down, mostly, as Mamoru settles back into looking calm. Which means that by the time Daisuke comes back out, it'd be easy to think the man's staying out of the conversation simply because he wasn't there for the incident.
Daisuke Hansuke did it from the kitchen because he knew the inital reaction would be 'totally kick his ass'. He sort of sighs and rubs a hand across his face when he grumbles. "Yeah... yeah." he says. "I'd try to speak to Ami and she'd... say something that'd go over my head. I'd talk to Venus and--- she'd ask me if I was spy. So. Yeah." he says.
"I got tired of going 'what the hell am I, who am I, I need to try to find answers myself.'" he mutters. "Yeah." he says with a sigh as he crosses his arms. "Just. Kinda been eating at me forever. Now that a lot of that garbage is over, I figured it's best if I say something rather than I dunno, you guys learn another way." he commiserates grumpily.
"Yeah..if I'd known at the time I'd probably. Not had done that." he admits with a sigh. "So sorry- and yeah I'm gonna buy her all the ice cream smoothies then." he says.
He says. "Psychometry. Is that what it's called?" he asks. He idly gets out his phone and Googles. Wikipedia. "Huh..." he says. Then he looks up at Kunzite. "Right. So. When I.. 'woke up' I met this guy" pointing at Mamoru. "And Sailor Moon. Mamoru was Kamen at the time, but." he says. "Still felt really familar? He knew my name, at least. Off the bat." he mutters.
"Anyways. Things got really weird and I started freaking out and having all sorts of awful panic attacks and then they stuck me with Venus of all people and her test to find out if I was legit was to dislocate her shoulder." he says.
"I almost fainted!" he insists. "So I was just this large hot mess of anxiety for a majority of early time when I touched the staff. I was pretty much worried about everything. I had this talking cat giving me the evil eye and tapping on my window doing the 'I'm watching you gesture'- and had this tiny talking cat boy floating about the Verone Animal Care Club room sometimes and I was just at points where I wondered what else was going to happen and if I was going to be able to deal with it."
"Right. You'll hear Moon call me 'Snake Staff' still. That's Luna's fault. That's what Luna called me at first. 'Snake Staff'. Like an insult." he says with a bemused expression.
"Things are better now though." he insists. "I think facing Beryl down those two times kinda made me realize there's an actual lot I can handle and not turn into a puddle of something else."
"Anyways, what I'm saying Kunzite is that I'm very glad you weren't actually you for that period because you never had to see me as a hot mess." he crosses his hands bemusedly as he looks back to Mamoru. "But yeah. Sorry." he says with a sigh. "Won't happen again. Or. If I feel for, whatever reason I /need/ to do that again. I can just, you know. Ask first now." he says.
At least Mamoru ate a bunch of his stew before not really having any appetite left; he stops pointlessly pushing the food around in his bowl and leans carefully to put it on the coffee table, then slouches sideways from his couch-curl into lying on his side, still more or less curled up, behind Kunzite's currently-fuzzy head. "Psychometry, yeah. I mean it's a bunch of other stuff too, but that's the least controlled part," he says mildly.
Then he apparently can't help but put his hand on top of that fuzzy head. Because fuzzy.
"Venus was also a hot mess at the time. I'm sorry things were so difficult for you. Even I was suspect; I wasn't from the Moon Kingdom. I'd just spent months proving I was willing to tank lethals for Moon, though, so I got the benefit of the doubt-- and they figured out I was the prince before I did, and figured I needed protecting, because they might be able to find the Princess with me around, you know? It was tough for everyone. Your timing just really sucked I guess. Not your fault. Not really anyone's fault."
A beat, again, and the prince peers at Daisuke with one blue eye, musingly. "It wasn't an insult. She just had no idea how to refer to you, and to be fair, Asclepius is spelled and pronounced a lot of different ways and hard to remember in almost all of them. Snake Staff is pretty badass. Way better than Hat Guy."
Through this last, he's sort of in the process of nearly becoming a mink stole because Kunzite is in really, really prime location for it. He dramatically drapes an arm over his guardian's shoulder-- as much to distract him from any faux pas Daisuke may be committing as to be a lazy unwell cat. "I need to go to Zoi's," he complains.
Distractions help. The fact that Kunzite had a version of this conversation with himself cast in Daisuke's role a day or two earlier? Also helps. Though Daisuke would not find himself being chased around by someone wielding a naginata, in any case. Hand on head, prince on shoulder, both are less put up with than accepted as if they're part of the daily routine. Kunzite says to Daisuke, "It'd probably have worked out somewhat better for you if Venus hadn't had to worry that you might be working for me. Unfortunately, I'd given her reasons. But. Past now."
Present involves him craning his neck to eye Mamoru again. "I am not carrying you to Zoi's on my back," he informs the prince, and shifts his weight and pushes upward enough to roll Mamoru back onto the couch. Then gets up to his feet. "Other methods may be negotiable." Because driving is hell and public trasportation is not an option for a lazy unwell cat psychic.
Daisuke Hansuke sighs. "Well." he says. "It seems you two are tapped for the night. I'll do these few dishes and make sure the kitchen is clean for you guys for putting up with me tonight." he says with a smile. "And then I'll go ahead and get on my way. If you guys feel you need to contact me, just remember- you guys-- that means- you" he points at Kunzite, "You." he points at Mamoru. "Jadeite, Nephrite or Zoistie. Have my priority. I most certainly didn't find a magic staff to sit on it" he says with a nod.
"Anyways, You should probably get him to where he'll be most comfortable now." he says, as he begins to float off toward's the kitchen before ANYONE can object to his help.
It's as well that Mamoru is already laughing from being shrugged off to roll onto his back on the couch, or the laughter from Dai's second-to-last comment might be much more noticeable. "Ugh," he says, flopping his arms over his stomach and oozing into the cracks of the couch, "laughing hurts. There's nothing wrong with sitting on magic staves if that's what you're into, anyway..."
Then he's laughing again and it hurts even more, so he stifles it in the couch cushions and mumbles something to the effect of, 'thanks Dai you're cool see you soon' or maybe just 'I want to go to bed everything sucks'.
Other methods have apparently already been negotiated.
"Thank you." That's directed toward Daisuke. "Somehow I don't think Nephrite's about to notice details like that." More accurately, Nephrite probably wouldn't have made it inside till dawn, even without Makoto's company. "And if you run into trouble with that transfer student -- call. Some of us won't always have reception, but the others should."
And a moment later, Kunzite is in uniform, and leaning down to pick his prince rather unceremoniously up off the couch, then turn to exit the apartment the same way Mamoru came in.
Sadly, even henshin does not fix his hair.